Who we are

The Ice Bear Project is a not-for-profit arts organisation. The inspiration behind it has come from animal sculptor, Mark Coreth. He witnessed the effects of climate change when he first travelled to Baffin Island during November 2007. Mark knew that few will ever experience the Arctic, but realised that he could bring the Arctic to everyone in the form of an Ice Bear sculptural event.

The Ice Bear Project is non-political. We simply believe that great art alone can speak for itself and has a significant role to play in connecting us all to the natural world.

What we do

We want to create a life-sized ice sculpture of a polar bear in Trafalgar Square and then in a number of major cities worldwide. These will be powerful, iconic, emotive events which bring home the beauty and fragility of the Arctic to people everywhere.

Ice Bear People >>

What makes humankind different?

Our ability to destroy and our ability to impart.

Of all species in the history of life on this planet, there has been one whose ability to leave its mark has been like no other... Us! With the application of our brains and the use of our hands, we have sculpted this world and our endeavour has covered its surface, from the deserts to the Poles. 

Along with tools for cutting and clearing, our ancestors shaped artifacts, to help express their place and their struggle.   Human hands created the incised mammoth tusk, the cave paintings, the carved offerings, and across tens of thousands of years, these still appeal to our senses and communicate ideas. These hands, which can over exploit our world, can also capture its essence and that essence, characterised as art, touches our emotions and can change us.

So, at a time, when through science, evidence of humankind's extraordinary destructive ability is being revealed, it is through art that we can express our emotional response.

This simple idea, The Bear in the Square, expresses the essence of the issue human society now faces; not political, or economic, but fundamental.